The most surprising news in Forbes’s latest Global Billionaire list isn’t that Bill Gates has been toppled as the world’s richest man.

No, the biggest surprise is the rise of the Indian rich — four of the top eight billionaires in the world are from India. Topping the ranks is steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, whose worth Forbes puts at $45 billion. Next up are the Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, with $43 billion and $42 billion respectively, largely from petrochemicals. Rounding out the list is KP Singh, the real-estate magnate, at $30 billion.

This is an encouraging sign for the Indian economy. It shows that a country long known for brutal poverty can now compete with the U.S. and others in creating personal wealth. The Merrill Lynch/Cap Gemini report says that India’s population of millionaires grew 20% last year, to about 100,000. That rate of growth was more than twice the growth of millionaires in the U.S.

Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin and Facebook.Arun’s Google+ Profile